A Few Things Got Left Out of The Daily Caller’s Report on Confederate Monument Rally
A reporter for the conservative news site
neglected to mention he’d given a speech in front of protesters in support of white nationalism.
On May 14, The Daily Caller, a popular conservative website,
published a news storyabout recent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. Led by prominent white supremacists and anti-Semites, the protesters, some carrying the battle flag of the Confederacy, expressed their anger over the city’s plans to remove a large monument to Robert E. Lee.
The article noted that some 200 people had carried torches in a march to the monument, a procession it called “visually striking.†It also quoted a young black man speaking favorably about one of the protest’s organizers.
The story, it turned out, also carried some critical omissions: It didn’t disclose that its author, Jason Kessler, is supportive of white supremacist groups, and
on the day of the march had himself made a speech to the protesters in which he praised fascist and racist organizations, thanked a prominent Holocaust denier, and declared the beginnings of a cultural “civil war.â€
. . . .
Within hours of being contacted by a ProPublica reporter, The Daily Caller appended an editor’s note to the article and severed its ties with Kessler. The editor’s note states, “The author notified The Daily Caller after publication that he spoke at a luncheon May 14 on behalf of an effort to preserve the monument.â€
. . . .
“Kessler is representative of what hate looks like today, operating at the center of several movements that have arisen over the last few years,†said Oren Segal, Director of the ADL’s Center on Extremism. “He clearly sympathizes with white supremacists, but like many on the alt-right seeks to deflect such notions by presenting his words and activity as a mere response to multiculturalism and an assault from the left.â€